Since the years before the AI-Xciting of marketing, it was expected that convergent and divergent thinking would work together to produce great creativity in the future, as Nick Farnhill points out. In the Think with Google video, the estimated date was 2030.
And in 2024, some things are crystal clear:
AI performs tasks such as PPC optimization, but it still needs human strategy and creativity.
AI designs content, but it lacks the emotional intuition that only marketers offer.
AI recognizes trends, but human insight is the key to understanding.
AI frees marketers from storytelling by automating repetitive tasks.
AI can increase global productivity by up to trillion, with significant marketing impact.
AI-based personalization can increase campaign performance, such as the 25% increase in the click-through rate of Michaels stores.
UP to 90% of online content could soon be generated by AI, but human creativity remains essential.
Ethical concerns such as algorithmic biases make human surveillance crucial.
But there is much more to unpack. Go exploring!
Want to jump from the?
Can we really play together?
Ethical considerations on AI: where to draw the line
Can we really play together?
What if AI could be your next creative partner? Not a replacement from the point of view of an “AI or marketing agency”, but an employee.
There is a lot of talk about AI in relation to marketing agencies, but perhaps this is less about a victory than about how they can support each other.
AI is already changing the way marketers work, and agency managers are noticing it. In a video from Think with Google, they discuss how tools such as Google’s Performance Max optimize ad placement.
AI can help sketch out ideas or show what a future ad might look like. But ultimately, it takes human judgment to decide if these ideas fit the brand’s message. Sunil Naryani stressed that AI is already an essential tool in today’s marketing plans.
The point is that it’s not about finding the “right” tool, but about figuring out how to effectively use both when you think about AI versus marketing agencies. Laurent Thevenet suggests that creative people should explore different AI tools and learn to push the limits while preserving the human touch.
It is therefore not necessary to choose one over the other. You are more likely to find the sweet spot where AI helps agencies do their best work. In this balance, we could see the rise of AI marketing agencies (or AI agencies in general, let’s say) that combine the power of data with human creativity and keep marketers effective in an ever-changing landscape.
Based on the information from the McKinsey report, AI has the potential to streamline many marketing tasks and give marketers time to focus on the bigger picture.
Take content creation, for example. The AI can quickly create blog posts, social media captions or product descriptions. This helps marketers keep up with the constant demand for fresh content on all platforms.
The AI takes care of the first drafts, while the marketers refine them to adapt to the brand voice. Instead of writing each piece from scratch, you can now focus on that:
Edition,
Add concrete examples,
and do more in-depth research to include reliable sources in order to make the content really valuable.
Human creativity goes beyond what AI can do. Suppose you are launching a campaign for a new product. An AI tool might suggest using specific lines, but an agency will think about how to tell a story that connects with people.
Then there is the data analysis. For example, AI can show which social media posts resonate or indicate when a product suddenly becomes popular. This type of insight allows marketers to make quick changes. If AI points out that younger audiences prefer short videos, an agency can change its focus to meet this demand. But here’s the thing: although AI can detect patterns, it doesn’t understand the “why” behind them. Yesterday, Human Intuition comes into play.
